A Semi-defense Of Stephen Hayes

Cheney's office is quite spacious--longer than it is wide, with high ceilings--particularly for the cramped West Wing. His large, mahogany desk sits opposite the entrance to the room, beneath a map depicting the Battle of Chickamauga, one of several Civil War battles that his great-great grandfather survived. In the far left corner of the room is a small television perched on a walnut-stained stand that matches the desk. Four flags sit on either side of a thin table behind Cheney's chair: the American flag and the Wyoming state flag on the left; the secretary of defense's flag and the vice president's flag on the right. The table is filled with photographs of Cheney's wife, his children and their partners, and his grandchildren. The white walls are spare, with only two gold-framed oil paintings--portraits of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams--and a map of the world as decorations. Two windows on the left side of the room provide light, and the royal blue sofa in front of Cheney's desk matches the carpet exactly. Two chairs on each side of the sofa form a semicircle. Sewn into the carpeting directly in front of the fireplace is the seal of the vice president of the United States.

Think of some low-level party functionary writing a glorious history of Andropov in the 1980s. Or think, at a lower level of apparatchikery, of Blumenthal and Clinton. But I don't think even Sid was infatuated with Clinton's furniture.